


Balance and Peace

by NikeV94 (Victoria4)



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends: Knights of the Old Republic (Video Games)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-28
Updated: 2019-11-28
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:53:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21588676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Victoria4/pseuds/NikeV94
Summary: A discovery in an ancient temple leads a woman on a quest to fight injustice at any cost.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3





	Balance and Peace

**Zeffo - Outer Rim - 35 BBY**

Juun Breaaur wondered sometimes if her soul was a strange shape or an odd color. Not bad or wrong, just different in a way the clashed with the cool gray cliffs of Zeffo and its quiet, hardworking people. At times growing up, she questioned if she was even human. All through puberty she watched to see if maybe zabrak horns would sprout beneath her sleek, sandy hair. Juun felt nothing but love for her village, and in all her 20 years she had never wanted for a seat at the table. But having space made for you and fitting in were different feelings.

The planet itself was a place of cold, sharp beauty. The sky swirled with clouds more days than not, and the snow never completely melted from the jagged peaks. Juun had spent her childhood scaling the cliffs, collecting rocks that glitter or small relics of the mysterious aliens that built the towering ruins tourists and archaeologists came to explore. As an adult, Juun was recently employed by the University of Courscant to act as guide and caretaker of the ruins nearest her village. She kept the paths up the mountains clear, monitored excavation sites for disruption or decay, and other jobs the old bones of the University were unable or unwilling to do.

It was fall, which meant the end of Juun's work season. Within a month the real snow would come, the University people would leave, and Juun would hole up with her family to weather out the harsh months of winter.

“Juun, can you hear me?” came a voice from the coms- garbled, but with an undeniable smooth, Core accent.

“As good as I ever can, Dr. Sado.” Juun said, shouting slightly to be heard over the patter of rain on her sleek, leather cloak. “I'm at the mouth of the cavern. I may lose contact once inside.”

The archaeologist clicked his tongue in disapproval, but didn't rescind his request to map the cave. “Report back in exactly sixty minutes- exactly! - or I'm sending a search party. And be safe.”

“Of course,” Juun said with a smile. Dr. Sada had been coming to Zeffo for study since before Juun was born. It was him who encouraged her early explorations, and it was him who, with some apprehension, had gotten her the job.

Juun stepped carefully to avoid the forming mud. She couldn't stay too long. Those puddles would be ice by dusk and the way back was treacherous enough. She never left the village without rations and a small heat pack. If she needed to, she could spend the night in the caves and leave once the ice melted. Dr. Sado would be worried and her parents furious, but it wouldn't be the first time.

Entering any new place was exciting. By its very nature, the beckoning darkness always held some mystery. But an extra thrill seemed to emanate from this particular cave.

As she approached, Juun pulled out a small whistle that hung on a chain around her neck. Its tone was shrill, almost too high for Juun to hear, and followed by the echo of scazz - large, rat like creatures – scurrying, retreating further into the cave. There was a rifle slung over her shoulder in case of a particularly brave creature, but the whistle usually did the trick. Jotaz—gray, bipedal monsters twice her size with big fists and bad attitudes—were the only thing not deterred by the whistle, but the narrow entrance meant they were very unlikely.

Inside and protected from the rain, Juun reached into a pouch on her belt and pulled out a metallic ball about as large as her fist. In one fluid motion, she flipped a switch and flicked the ball into the air. With a chirp, the survey droid activated. The top popped open, revealing a dozen spindly ocular lenses. Thrusters unfolded from all sides and the droid began to flit around the cavern, scanning walls with blue, green, and red lights, and feeding data back to the control box Juun pulled from her bag.

“Gotta be quick, Es-Ar,” Juun said, switching on a headlamp. “Doc gave us an hour.”

Surveying was simple work. Juun followed Es-Ar, confirming areas of interest on the control box as thousands of data points streamed by. Over the years, Dr. Sado had taught her some of what to look for. Shapes that were unlikely to be natural. Signs of architecture or relics. He would go over the maps later, and if the area looked promising, plan an excavation for next spring.

The path tipped every slightly down as the ceiling slopped up, creating a vast cavern. The odd patch of ice glistened from the walls and floor in the light of Es-Ar's scans. The walls showed very little intention behind their crafting, and from what Juun knew, it seemed unlikely this was anything other than another hole in the ground. Zeffo was full of them. Still, she couldn't shake the sense of calling. Something in here wanted to be found.

Thirty minutes passed. There was an unintelligible garble over the coms, presumably Dr. Sado. Between the walls and the low lying interference of Zeffo's winds, no message could be interpreted.

It was about time to turn back. If there was anything worth further investigation, it would most likely turn up in Es-Ar's data. But still...Juun wasn't ready.

Es-Ar whirred a question. “Soon,” Juun said, running a hand along the rough wall. “Five more minutes.”

Five minutes passed with more of the same. Juun frowned and tucked the survey box back into her bag. The action resulted in what felt like a tangible pull on her heart. She sighed. “It's silly,” she said to Es-Ar, “But I thought this might be the big one. Dr. Sado is always talking about us missing something and I thought maybe it was here.”

Juun slouched onto a good sized rock near the wall and pulled out a canteen. Es-Ar came to hover near her head and chirped inquisitively. “He says the University is talking about pulling funding. We need – I mean, he needs – a new excavation sites to show them. If not...”

Junn swallowed the lump in her throat. Maker, what would she do without Dr. Sado and the other archaeologists? Heard banthas? Join her cousins fishing? Juun laughed humorlessly, fighting back tears.

She jumped abruptly to her feet. “Alright, Es-Ar. If we start back now we may be able to make it to the entrance before the search party's left."

Suddenly, there was a strange, eerie cry from up ahead. Juun lurched forward, grabbing for her rifle, and then switched her steps to slow and cautious as she moved to investigate the sound.

A meter ahead, a young phillak bleated out again from a perch above Juun's head. Its rear hoof, it seemed, had slipped between a crack in the rocky outcropping it found itself.

With a little help, Juun knew it could hop to the next bit of rock.

From her belt, she pulled out two climbing spikes. With a mechanical crunch, they embedded themselves into the wall deep enough for Juun to pull herself up, and then collapsed back to do it again. Nimbly, Juun scaled the wall to where the philak was trapped.

It struggled even more as she near, crying out and thrashing its budding horns against the wall. Small stones showered down.

“Quiet whining,” Juun said as she wedged a boot between the crack and tried to pry the rocks apart. They crumbled and groaned and finally the phillak's foot pulled free. It leaped away, finding purchase seemingly on air as it scrambled up the side of the cavern.

Juun rested on the outcropping for a moment, pulling out her canteen again.

It occurred to her that she had just shot and killed a phillak the week before. It wasn't often, but the adults were aggressive. That phillak could very well grow up to attack or even kill someone someday. She frowned thoughtfully. _If you have the ability to save a life, you should_ , she told herself with a conviction that surprised her and set itself deep within her heart.

The phillak continued to move up, despite the rapidly approaching ceiling. Barely within the glow of her lamp, it slipped into a crack in the wall.

Juun's eyebrows rose.

Where is it going?

It wouldn't be unusual for there to be another cavern parallel to this one. However, phillak didn't live underground. It should be moving towards open air.

Without taking her eyes off the spot the phillak disappeared into, Juun whistled for Es-Ar and began climbing her way towards the crack.

If the phillak could fit, so could she, but it would have to be headfirst.

This was a terrible idea.

Es-Ar whirred its agreement with the thought.

“If I don't go now, we'll never know what's here.”

That was completely illogical. Es-Ar's maps would show any holes or cracks that could be explored later. Properly. With a team.

But the excitement from before had returned. Her blood seemed to buzz beneath her skin, like something alive and frantic. And a feeling deep inside her repeated, _It has to be you. You and alone._

With a steadying breath, Juun pushed herself inside the wall.

As soon as her feet slipped between the stone, she felt air on the top of her head. A few more shimmies, and she pulled her torso out of the crack.

Juun let out a breathy, joyful gasp. The wall on this side was extremely different. Not rough, but cut and carved and shaped.

Somewhere in the darkness she heard the young phillak leaping away, some magic it seemed, keeping it on the much smoother surface. Climbing spikes in hand, she freed herself from the crack. A glance up, down, and every direction revealed nothing but more darkness and wall. Her stomach dropped.

“Hey Es-Ar?” The tiny droid came out behind her, its little metal body clattering against the rocks. It jerked around in the air, ocular lenses flailing like tentacles. “Is there...is there a floor in here?”

After a brief scan, the survey droid buzzed an apprehensive affirmation. Juun tried to grin the nerves away. “Then down we go.”

Juun Breaaur was an expert climber, with a reaction time her Mami said made her reckless. Even so, the journey down was laborious. There was nearly nothing for her to put her feet on, and her arms trembled from holding herself up for so long. A few times, her spike slipped as she lowered it, and she found herself making shorter and shorter strides.

The sixty minutes mark passed during that time. She tried not to think about how she would get back, which was surprisingly easy when near certain death loomed beneath her. Dr. Sado would send someone to look for her. Es-Ar had the maps. At the very least, the droid could make its way back and lead a search party to her.

Finally, her feet brushed earth. With a cry, she released the spikes and staggered to the floor, lying on the ground for a moment to give her body the rest it had been screaming for.

Arms still feeling like rubber, Juun forced herself to sit up and look around. She saw mostly rubble. Large, cut rocks, that at some point in the last thousand years had tumbled down. Heaving herself to her feet, she moved towards the collection of rubble, focusing on what looked to be a rather squared rock. It wasn't silent. Her own foot steps stirred centuries old debris. Juun heard the echos of clinks and shuffle of creatures nearby. She blew on her whistle and placed a hand on her rifle to be safe.

Upon closer inspection, the squared looking rock was exactly that. Her eyes could barely peak above it. As she looked up, the shapes of the stone became more complex. Juun narrowed her eyes and took a step back to make sense of what she was seeing.

Then she let out a yelp of joy.

It was a statue. A bust of one of the strange flat headed Zeffo aliens that first walked the planet. She moved around the statue, find another, and then another, a measured distance away. Between them were pottery and other relics of the ancient race.

“A temple, Es-Ar,” she said giddily, her voice hushed with reverence. “A real, kriffing, Zeffo temple! Dr. Sado is going to lose his –”

Es-Ar let out a shrill warning milliseconds before Juun felt herself knocked into the air as a heavy forearm slammed against her side. She skidded along the ground. Blood filled her mouth. A roar rattled the stones.

Juun looked around wildly, before her light finally settled on the flabby gray monster flailing its over-sized fists around as Es-Ar flitted in and out of its space.

Dazed, injured and exhausted, but with fresh adrenaline flowing through her muscles, Juun scrambled to her feet and yanked her rifle around. She let off a few haphazard shots, the bolts disappearing into the darkness. Her arms shook too much to aim.

The jotaz turned it gaze sharply towards her, head tails flapping. Es-Ar rammed itself between the monsters bulbous eyes.

_ Trust your aim. _

Juun fumbled with another clip on her belt. She fired again, and a few bolt flashed off the monster's flank. Spittle flew from its maw as it let out another roar.

It began an uncoordinated charge.

Juun scampered back, tripping and falling to the ground as she reloaded the rifle again.

_Trust your aim or you will not survive!_ a voice from inside her said—no. Commanded.

Tears caught in Juun's lashes as she closed her eyes. She fired.

She felt the presence of the monster, felt its heat, smelled the meat rotting between its teeth. It let out another roar inches from her face. Then a whimper.

The beast fell onto her, crushing her against the rocks and knocking the lamp from her head. It heaved once more and then seemed to die.


End file.
